🎬 Orbit Manifesto

Title ideas

• Building a consumer social app when everyone told me not to
• Making Friends In Uni Is Hard… But I’m changing that
• This video will find you when
• Struggling to Make Friends at Uni? You’re Not Alone. That’s Why We Built Orbit.

Thumbnail ideas

• “I need your help”

Script

Before you click off, just give me 30 seconds of your time, if this doesn’t resonate with you, feel free to leave, but if you’ve ever felt disconnected or struggled to find meaningful connections at university, you’re in the right place. That’s exactly why I started Orbit last year. For the past few months, I’ve been working day-n-night on an app designed to empower every university student to find the people they want to surround themselves with. Whether you’re looking for a friendship, relationship, mentorship, or any ship, the ultimate goal is to help you find your crew—the circle, the orbit of people who will inspire, challenge, and support you. But we’re not just an app, Orbit is also a community of like-minded people striving to make the most of their university experience by finding and connecting with the best people in their university. So, if you want to be part of our community and shape the future of Orbit, join us on Discord—link in the description below.

Okay, 30 seconds is over, If this interests you, please keep watching as I share our manifesto and our mission and how you could be part of it, because the app is fully open-source.

Also speaking of open-source, we also have another open-source app called Exo, which helps you have more meaningful face-to-face conversations with your friends, family, partners, or anyone you care about in a very smart, but unobtrusive way. I’ve been using it for around six months now, and it has been extremely useful. Even though I’m basically 99% done with it, I’m too focused on Orbit to launch it. But if you guys are interested, let me know in the comments or in the Discord. And I can send you over a copy of the app so you can try it out.

Why is this a problem worth solving

We’ve all heard the saying, ‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,’ right? Well, it’s true. The people you choose to surround yourself with have an incredible influence on who you become—and yet, so many of us struggle to find those connections that truly push us forward. That’s why it’s so important to stay open to meeting new people. Growth happens through connection. You find people who complement you—your strengths rub off on them, and theirs on you. That’s peak friendship in my opinion, and in many ways, it’s also the foundation of great relationships.

Orbit is here to help you find those puzzle pieces that fit perfectly with yours. We’re all puzzle pieces in this world, and to make your life truly fulfilling, you need to surround yourself with the right ones. That’s where we come in.

We’re focusing on university students because this is a transformative phase of life. The people you meet during this time can have a profound impact on your future. University is where you discover yourself, maximize your potential, and build the foundation for the life you want to lead. By surrounding yourself with peers on a similar mission and mentors willing to help, university becomes the perfect community to find and discover not only who you are but also who you want to become.

Some of the most successful people in this world dedicate their success to meeting that one person who changed their whole life trajectory. There’s even a word for this in Chinese culture - “贵人” (guìrén). We want to make these occurrences happen more often for everyone. We wanna help you to make the most of your university experience by connecting you with the best people for you. As previously mentioned, we want to help people make the best of their university experience, and a significant part of that is enabling everyone to meet the people they wish to connect with

There are studies that show that students with supportive and encouraging friends perform better academically, are healthier, and feel more satisfied with their university experience.

Let me introduce you to two of our target users: Mark and Ken.

App demo & Target audience

Let me show you how Orbit works by introducing you to two of our users—Mark and Ken. Mark is a first-year student from Brazil who moved to Canada for university. Despite being outgoing and meeting a lot of people, he struggled to find someone he could deeply connect with. He met people who enjoyed soccer, which he loves, but he did not feel any emotional connection with anyone. just three weeks in, he felt dissatisfied with his university experience. That’s when he discovered Orbit.

Ken, on the other hand, is an exchange student from Japan. He’s more introverted and prefers one-on-one interactions over group settings like a club event. He finds it hard to approach people, even though he’s interested in making real friendships. Although he is interested in socializing, he finds it challenging to approach people due to his introverted nature. He longs for the connection he had with his best friend back in Japan. He often feels like an imposter in class, disconnected from campus life which demotivates him from studying. One day, while sitting alone at lunch, he discovered Orbit.

After signing up, the first thing he saw at the top of the list was Mark’s meetup request—with a sky-high AI score that proved they were on the same wavelength, sharing similar schedules and a craving for deep conversation. Ken decided to seize the opportunity, and the next day, they met for lunch. They both enjoyed discussing their struggles with fitting in and the things they learned since moving to a new country all alone. After their meetup, they exchanged contacts through our app and planned to meet again.

This is the kind of journey we envision for Orbit users.

Competition

Let’s face it—most platforms today focus too much on looks and superficial connections. They prioritize appearance over the things that really matter—your goals, values, and life experiences. At Orbit, we flip that on its head. We start with who someone is on the inside—their ambitions, goals, vulnerabilities, and life lessons. Only after you’ve connected on that level do we reveal their outside self, like their profile pictures and social media handles.

Our short-term plan and how you can be a part of it

We’re launching at the University of Calgary this coming fall, but from now until then we’re looking for students like Mark and Ken to join us. We’ve created a Discord server where you can talk directly to me and the team. We want to understand your needs and build a platform that genuinely helps you in your university journey. We are not building this for ourselves; we are building it for you. Your input, feedback, and thoughts are crucial for tailoring the app to address your challenges in university life. We are determined to get it right. We believe this app is necessary in today’s world, where making friends is more challenging than it should be. I understand this app may not be for everyone; some people are satisfied with their current friend groups or are not interested in seeking new connections. However, for those who wish to expand their circle or find a better fit, we invite you to join us on this journey. We will not quit; we will continue building this vision so that every university student can easily find their group. Despite my busy schedule, I am more than willing to sit down with you to understand your pain points and what you want this app to solve for you. I promise to do everything in my power to help as many university students as possible make the most of their experiences and the people around them.

as I mentioned, Orbit is FULLY open-source, Which means all the code that we have written (all 500 hours) is fully public because I’m not doing this for the money;

I’m building Orbit because I love people and believe in the power of connection. I cannot help it; I just love connecting and bonding with people. This passion is what fuels my desire to build this app - to empower everyone to connect with the right individuals.

I believe that within each person is a universe waiting to be discovered. Through these connections, you can learn so much about yourself and teach others about themselves. That is the beauty of friendships, connections, and relationships. There is nothing more powerful than two people engaging in deep conversation and understanding each other’s universes. In my opinion, it is the most powerful force in the world, and I want to help unlock that for everyone, especially in university.

If I’m able to help people feel more connected with the world and its people, this is revenue for me. If you’d like to join us on this mission, we invite you to contribute if you’re interested. There are various issues on GitHub that you can tackle as we approach the finish line for this app. But right now, what we need most from you guys is your voices. We wanna understand your struggles so we can build an app that is able to solve them. I know this app is not for everyone, but for the 1% of the world who want this app, this is your chance to make this app come to life. Because there is no Orbit without the community, so we need you as much as you need us.

If you’ve made it this far, chances are something I said resonated with you. Let’s keep the conversation going—join our Discord, drop a comment below, or message me directly.

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